Teen spending on footwear was better in this year's Piper Sandler study, but athletic brands also are losing share to non-athletic shoe preferences.

Piper Sandler’s 26th Annual Teen Survey — the study polled 9,000 teens — indicates that footwear spend is still down but not as much as it was in 2025, and their shoe brand preferences are echoing what the footwear sector is seeing in the marketplace.

While teen spending fell 1 percent, it was better than the 6 percent decline last year. Spending by male teens was down 3 percent, offset by a 2 percent increase in spending by female teens.

For upper income teens, footwear spend rose 4 percent, driven mainly by male teens, with female teen spend flat to last year, according to a report from Piper analyst Anna Andreeva. Spending overall grew as they spent on apparel, which saw a 15 percent increase driven by upper income teens across both genders.

As for the preferred shoe brands, Nike is still number one at 45 percent, followed by Adidas at 10 percent and New Balance at 7 percent. But those percentages are slipping from year-ago levels that were at 48 percent, 11 percent and 8 percent, respectively. That reflects the broader shift in the market, with in a transition moment and more challenger brands edging in.

Rounding out the Top 10 were Birkenstock (5 percent), Ugg (4 percent), Converse (4 percent), On Running (3 percent), Asics (2 percent), Vans (1 percent) and Crocs (1 percent).

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